Seeing through Stone Youth Audio Tour

Hello, I’m a student from the Art For All program and I’m going to be talking about one of my favorite pieces, Gabriela Mureb: machine #4 Stone. In the art piece, you’re going to be seeing a stone that’s repeatedly hit from a machine, and the stone will be rocking back and forth from the repeated hitting from the machine. And throughout, you’re going to be hearing the noises of the motor from the machine as well as the rocking of the stone, and as well as the impact from the motor to the stone. One thing that you’re going to be seeing will be a mark on the stone from the motor, because of the amount of times that had been hit from it. This art piece is inspired by a Brazilian proverb saying “soft water on hard stone hits until it bores a hole.” This basically means that with enough time, the motor will eventually dent the stone or even create a hole. And probably even making the weight of the stone uneven and probably causing it to fall. Before looking at the descriptions, I kind of made my own interpretation, and I thought that the art piece is supposed to represent some type of bullying or harassment of another like the machine is the bully and the stone is the one being bullied. And the machine keeps on hitting the stone, which represents a person that keeps on bullying a person. And the mark on the stone is like the damage that’s like how bad the bullying has hurt the bullied. And so the stone finally moves or something. The machine is still going to keep on going. Like even after the bullied is gone, the bully is still bullying. So it’s kind of like, I see it as hate that just kind of doesn’t stop. 

The artist behind this art piece is Gabriela Mureb, whose artworks usually include machines and other industrial elements. She wanted to build a mediation between the body, the world, and the types of technology. Sort of like her artworks are supposed to represent human actions, but through machines and her artwork and machine #4 Stone, it’s supposed to represent incarcerated people trying to break down a stone wall or more like breaking down one brick from a stone wall. And maybe that brick, that one brick, will cause a whole stone wall to collapse and eventually they have their freedom. And I really like this art piece because it’s a really minimalist thing that has a bigger meaning behind it. It’s just two things, but it means a whole movement of wanting to be free. And at the same time, the sight of the art piece, it’s hypnotizing since you look at it and just keep on seeing the stone being hit. You just keep on wanting to look at it until something happens. 

Hey there. I’m Emma, an intern for the Art for All program here at the IAS, and today I will be your guide to one of my personal favorite pieces, Freelines by Robert Hillary King. When I first walked into this exhibit, this praline themed piece caught my eye basically immediately. Yup, you heard that right. Pralines like the caramel candy that originates from France. Maybe it was because I was hungry, or maybe I was just genuinely intrigued, but those candies made me feel something. What caught your eye Listener? The purple label, the fact that it’s in a stack right when you walk in? Remember you were like me. That was probably a little hungry, or maybe even a different reason, like the textures and the materials perhaps. Initially, this piece wasn’t fake. Robert sent us the real candies, but as food does, they got moldy. So we had to make fake replicas of his caramelized treat, utilizing paint and clay and reusing King’s original wrappers. 

Now, let’s dive into the backstory. Robert Hillary King, also known as Robert King Wilkerson, was a member of the Black Panther Party and one of the Angola Three. He spent 29 years in solitary confinement at Angola’s prison. Imagine that: 29 years of your life in a prison. But he didn’t let that break him. Instead, he turned to art. While in prison, King learned how to make these candies from a fellow inmate, turning this skill into a symbol of hope. As he said, “In a hopeless situation, you could still envision hope,” and that’s what he did. For him, these candies meant freedom, and even after he was freed, he still kept this candy recipe very close to his heart and even started his own brand where he sells these candies to the public, which you can order online if you’re interested. 

Freelines is a powerful piece. Those lines and colors, they’re not just for show. They represent freedom, resistance, and an unbroken spirit. King created this after his release, pouring his experiences and emotions into it. Taking a step closer, you can see how the lines intersect and diverge. It’s like they’re telling a story of paths taken, obstacles faced and the relentless pursuit of freedom. 

What’s truly inspiring about King is his spirit. Despite nearly three decades in solitary confinement, he came out with a message of hope. He utilizes candies to show the strength of the human will, and how the power of creativity can be used as a form of resistance, even in a dark place like prison. So next time you see the freelines piece, remember the story behind those vibrant lines is not just a piece of art. It’s a narrative of struggle, resilience, and just pure heart. Robert Hillary King’s journey shows us that even in the darkest places, light can shine through. Community is important no matter who you are or where you are. Appreciate the people around you and maybe even make them a sweet treat like King did for his fellow inmates. Thank you for joining me on this deep dive. Stay curious and keep exploring.

My name is Jayden and I’ll be talking about Sherrill Roland’s art piece titled Forecast. Sherrill Roland was born in 1984, in Asheville, North Carolina. In 2009, he received a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina. He stayed there until 2013, when he was wrongfully accused of four felonies. After about nine months, the charges were dropped from four felonies to four misdemeanor charges, leaving him in prison for ten months and two weeks at the DC Central Detention Facility. During his time in prison, he recognized his previous judgments about those who were incarcerated, and it deeply changed his point of view. 

In 2016 Sherrill Roland’s conviction was exonerated. Initially, he considered abandoning art, but after discussing his doubts with professors, he realized he could use art to reflect on his incarceration. For his MFA thesis, he wore an orange jumpsuit on campus, documenting interactions and mimicking prison rules. His studio became his cell and the art building was the block. This project led to conversations about incarceration with students and faculty, and he observed varied reactions, including stares and avoidance. So Roland’s piece from 2013 is reminiscent installation made from steel and an LED light box. The light box is structured to resemble a window embedded within the cinder blocks of a prison cell, positioned so it’s just out of reach and inoperable. I think that this design that Roland chose serves as a touching reminder of life beyond incarceration. The work incorporates Roland’s practice of contemplation, with the neon light emerging from the piece symbolizing hope and sustenance. The juxtaposition of the prison like steel structure and the hopeful light box highlights the contrasts between confinement and the possibility of freedom. 

Deeply influenced by his wrongful incarceration, Roland uses his experiences as a foundation for his work. His experience provides a powerful narrative on the criminal justice system and its impact on people, making his art relevant personally and universally.

Hello, my name is Yasmin. I am an intern at the Art for All program, and I will be talking to you about the piece that grabbed my attention the most here at the Seeing Through Stone exhibit. My piece is The Capuchin Order by artist Carlos Motta. It depicts a Catholic church in the front, and in the back, we see La Casa Arana, which is a place where a genocide occurred. This house was built for the rubber industry by a Peruvian Amazon company. The Putumayo genocide also took place in this house, in which the indigenous people of the land were forced to work for the rubber company and were killed, were basically enslaved in this house, and they would have to gather rubber because it was a very, popular resource that was used at the time. So this company basically enslaved the indigenous people of the land and forced them to collect rubber for them. They had to live in the house because it was basically its headquarters. About 30,000 people of the indigenous people died because they were killed or because of the mistreatment of them. There were also epidemics that killed some of them. 

Eventually, La Casa Arana was shut down and it is still there. The front of it is a Catholic church, which is kind of ironic because religion is seen as something very pure. And behind it is a lot of things that they cover up with the religion, which is one of the viewpoints that the artist has, that religion is used to excuse a lot of the horrific things that people do. So it it really shows how there’s what the church shows you and that there’s what happens behind the walls if you can say. So the church is also known for having converted a lot of Indigenous people to their religion of I  boarding schools, which is kind of what is depicted on these slides that are shown in the piece that are being projected onto the church. The artist is very much bringing to light all of these instances in which indigenous people were forced to convert into Catholicism. The thing that really stood out to me with this piece was the irony of the table, which is also part of the piece, um, having, uh, being read, to sort of, in my interpretation, represent all the blood that was spilled on this land, pertaining to La Casa Arana, in which so much bloodshed must have happened because of the mistreatment of them and how they were forced to be there.

Ironically, the model itself is white, which is seen as a very pure color, especially in religion. So it just it’s really interesting to me. There’s so many different ways you can see this piece. One of the things as well is this the La Casa Arana is still currently up, and, um, the walls of that place have seen so much, and only they truly know what happened in that house at the time and after. So to wrap this up, I know this might seem as like a bit of an outlier in the whole exhibit, but it’s a different type of incarceration. It isn’t the modern and like way that you might interpret incarceration like the jails that we have nowadays. But it is a way it is a form of people having been forced into these places and yeah, it fits into this exhibit that we have today showing how these systems existed, even if they didn’t have the names yet.

Hi, my name is Sid and I’m one of the students here at the IAS. I was instantly drawn to Charles Gaines Manifestos 4 because of its presentation as a four piece graphite drawing of musical scores expanding over both walls. Manifestos 4 combines history, art, and music to transform the text of the Dred Scott Decision into music. The Dred Scott Decision was a decision from 1846 when Dred Scott, an enslaved man from Missouri, and his wife Harriet sued for their freedom. They had taken residence in a free territory for a period of time. The lengthy decision ultimately decided in 1857, the Dred Scott, among other enslaved people, were property and therefore could not be protected by the rights given to U.S. citizens in the Constitution. Charles Gaines is an African American conceptual artist born in 1944, in Charleston, South Carolina, who took an interest in this case and used it for many of his art pieces, including the Skybox, which is on display at San Jose Museum of Art. Manifestos 4 combines irrational mathematical system of converting words into musical notes and the subjective emotional nature of experiencing music. In doing this, I think it demonstrates the irrationality of hate and the prejudice in the words. 

The structure of Manifestos 4 is a five piece performance where Gaines used a rule which transcribes letters A through H from the text into their equivalent music notes. For context, in the Baroque era of music, H was notation for a B-flat, so using a Baroque notation system helped him to convert the literal text into music. What’s fascinating is how the dissent is in a major key and sounds like exploration, hope, and movement, whereas the decision is in a minor key and sounds like doom and the fall of hope. I was drawn to this piece because it was a musical score and I love music. I play guitar and drums in band at school, and I love history as much as music. And so the blending of two of my favorite things was very fascinating. Backstories are everything to me, and Dred Scott is one of the many backstories of injustice in America, and a reason for why it’s so important to fight to make sure that everyone has rights, and every U.S. citizen regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexuality, is protected by the rights they deserve in the current state of America, this is more important than ever.

My name is Grayson McCoy. I’m a student in the Art for All program at the Institute of
the Arts and Sciences. Today, I wanted to talk about the art piece Disposition by Timothy James
Young. Disposition is a collection of documents, all framed. The documents are all reports or
requests made by Tim Young in prison. The documents were filed over the span of years. The
piece is a display of the silent battle Young has been fighting. We see the only way he has to
fight back. The documents are a stark, formal show of the cruelty and injustice of the criminal
legal system.
To me, this artwork is impactful because it reminds me of being in a really horrible
environment where my only course of action was to file a report. It felt hopeless and useless,
but I still fought for myself. I think that is a fundamental part of this piece: the idea of feeling
totally hopeless, but still fighting for yourself and your peers. In a really touching way, Young
fights against the system and its abuse because even through the darkness of being oppressed
and ignored, there is an undercurrent of hope. The documents span from 2006 to 2023,
presenting one man’s life, trauma and pain over 18 years.
If we take a closer look at the documents, we see examples of the abuse the criminal
legal system results in. Specifically, the document farthest to the right in the middle row, which
details how Tim Young was denied needed medical attention, which caused Young great pain.
Even in this single document, we are let in on the neglect a prisoner faces. For me, this piece
raises questions like how we as a society treat people like this and consider it justice, and what
can I do to change it?
What does this piece make you question?

Las 7 Puertas from Tiempo Muerto is a piece created by the artist pair Patricia Gomez and Maria Jesus Gonzalez. They used a tapestry of black fabric to strip off a piece of wall from a Spanish prison. And I think, I think it’s just a really beautiful piece. All the colors just blend and mesh in together perfectly, and you’re left with, like, a kind of intrigue, right? And what captivated me about it is it just it dragged me into it. It like, felt like I was just placed inside of the prison itself and I was walking down the hall, right? It was just a, like, really, really weird feeling for me personally, because I’ve always, like, on the outside, you don’t know how, um, how it is to be inside of a prison, right? All we do is just imagine and think about it. But looking at this piece, it just feels like you’re placed in there, and now you’re looking at the door. Um, the doors themselves. And personally, me, I’m like, not even the size of one of the doors. It’s still a little bit taller than me, and I’m like 5’10. So having that just existential like, wow, that’s actually crazy, feeling of being inside of a prison just brought me into the piece itself. And I also wanted to talk about, like, just the writings from the doors themselves, like on every single one of the doors, from 1 to 7. I know we can only see five in the exhibit, but there’s writing on each one of them. And one that really captivated me was in the center of the exhibit. Currently, since there’s only five in the middle one, there is the initials J.L.U, which, according to this paper here, it says it stands for Juan Luis Ubina.

Below it there’s a phrase in Spanish that says aqui también estuvo hijo, which means and is translated to your son was here as well. Which is just, it’s crazy to me, right? Thinking about that, just the chance and the likelihood that a person was held captive in there and inscribed their initials and was stuck inside of that cell for so long, and then in the future, their child, or possibly someone related to them, was also stuck in there. It’s just this feeling of like, destiny, kind of. And it’s harsh and very, very like concerning it’s scary, but I feel like just being able to see the history through the colors in the painting or not the painting, but like the the colors of the paint on the walls just captivates that as well. It also brings up like the stories of the incarcerated folk as well. This is only telling the stories of seven people, right? And the other people that were also stuck in those cells, what happened to them or the many hundreds of other people in every other cell? Like, it’s actually it’s crazy. It’s baffling. And think of all the prisons in the world right now. There are so many prisons just like scattered throughout, whether they be government owned or personally facilitated, because I know a lot of companies also have their own personal like rehabilitation centers that are like masked but are actually prisons themselves. So we’re bringing into question this whole like hierarchy of just incarceration. So those were my thoughts on it, but I think this piece is very captivating.

Natti: Hi! My name is Natti Carmona Betancourt. 

Zara: My name is Sara Duran. 

Natti: And this is our walkthrough of the Ancestral Intelligence art piece. 

Zara: So, Natti, what was your first impression on the art? 

Natti: I’m gonna be completely honest with you. I was really confused. 

Zara: I feel that. 

Natti: The first time I sat in the screening room, I was like, what is this? What is going on? 

Zara: Yeah. When I first went in there, I was kind of just looking for more of a quiet place. And then I was watching the screens, and I kind of didn’t know what was going on, but I knew it was kind of interesting. So I just kind of kept watching and kind of wanted to see where it went. But it was really interesting and it kind of kept switching to different storylines and people and interviews. And then it would switch to a woman talking. So it’s kind of– I didn’t know what was going on yet. 

Natti: No yeah. And then on top of that, when we got into the little debate, talking about what it was, how at first we were like, is it about slavery? Is it about this? It was that constant debate and we’re like, wait, wait, it’s in Portuguese. Wait, it’s in Spanish. Now what is it? 

Zara: I know. It had so many different translations going on as well, which made it really hard to kind of be like, oh, is it about this place or is it about this place? We kind of, we couldn’t figure it out. And we also couldn’t figure out when it would end either because we never reached it. So we were kind of just like, what’s going on? 

Natti: I don’t think we’ve finished it yet still. But we’ve seen good chunks of it. 

Zara: Yeah for sure. And then also when we found out the backstory, that was really interesting. 

Natti: Yeah. Finding out about what started the project and how it ended up being about police brutality. 

Zara: Yeah, exactly. And kind of how there was racism and classism in all the communities, even among people, people who were close with each other and grew up together and everything like that. 

Natti: Yeah, the backstory of the art piece is honestly really heartbreaking; finding out that someone who was a father, who had a family and honestly was really successful. I mean, he was a dentist and he got shot simply because he was black. Yeah, it’s just awful. 

Zara: Such a wrong place, wrong time. There wasn’t much repercussions at all to the people who did it. They tried to hide the body and everything. It was just kind of like, brushed over. And I feel like if it weren’t for this art piece, most people wouldn’t even find out about it. 

Natti: I literally did not know about this case until I found out reading the interview, watching the art piece, finding out that the police literally tried to cover their own tracks, tried to hide the body, and the body wasn’t found for months because of that. And yet none of them faced any repercussions aside from being fired. 

Zara: Yeah, I know it was– it’s so bad. And all the people in the community also recognized what was going on and they wanted to make a change. But no one was really doing anything so much. And then there was the woman who stood up and had her family come together and kind of raised awareness to it, which is honestly really inspiring to hear about. 

Natti: Yeah, finding out the fact that she didn’t know this man, she had no idea where he was from or who he was, but the fact that just hearing his story and what had happened to him and what his family was going through, how they wanted to be like, that’s it. We want to stop. We want to help. We want to stop this from happening and bring awareness. I think it’s so cool. And the fact that they all took so much time to go around to all these different places and interview these different groups of people who all had such strong opinions on this and have also faced this racism. 

Zara: Yeah, when you’re hearing about the actual story, it kind of makes you think about things that you’ve witnessed going on or even experienced personally, and kind of how you can almost relate to or sympathize with the story. And you’re like, wow, this kind of happened to me, or this happened to someone I know in my community, and it just really makes you think. 

Natti: Yeah. No. And then thinking about it, like in Haiti, people are basically being marginalized by their own people.

Zara: Yeah. It’s so bad.  And in those interviews, too,  you can tell how much the social injustices are hurting the people, the locals and what they’re going through. And you can hear it in their voice, see it in their face. And it’s just so interesting hearing it from such a firsthand perspective and experience, because it’s really like you don’t really hear about it so much. You have to listen and you can understand what they’re going through. 

Natti: Honestly, it was because of this art piece that it brought me into awareness of what was happening in Brazil and what was happening in Haiti. 

Zara: Yeah, I didn’t even realize all that was going on everywhere. I knew there were issues and everything, but I didn’t know the full extent and how much it was affecting so many people. 

Natti: Yeah, no. And it’s really eye opening listening to the actual thing; sitting down and watching it. I mean, the AI part is kind of–yeah–creepy at times. It’s kind of off putting, but I think that has a hand in hand with the art piece. Yeah. Because the art piece is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. 

Zara: Yeah. It’s not like it’s trying to walk you through this and hold your hand through the experience. It’s making you understand what’s going on. It’s not supposed to be like, oh, this is so easy to get. This is hard. This is a heavy topic. And they’ve executed it in such a way that’s really impactful to other people. 

Natti: Yeah, I feel like it’s also able to resonate with so many people, especially people of color, like ourselves, and constantly being marginalized and constantly being profiled just because of how we look or how we dress or how we act. No matter how proper we act we can never really fit that category of a perfect citizen. 

Zara: I agree. And then I think one of the most impactful parts of this story was when they were talking about, it was in Haiti, there was the Orion Operation. It was basically–the man who was being interviewed– he was telling it from his perspective, and he was telling how the police and the military came in and just shot everyone up in their homes, in the middle of the night. So many people were injured, hurt, killed like lost family members. It’s just so crazy hearing about that. I had never even heard about that. So I was just sitting there and I was watching it and it was just so heartbreaking hearing about these sorts of things and kind of knowing that this is going on and a lot of people don’t even realize it’s happening to where it’s like… 

Natti: No, same because, I mean, I’ve always been aware of police brutality, but this gave me like a whole new kind of picture, especially because I’ve always been into, like listening to all these cases, especially because a lot of this stuff definitely happens in Mexico. There’s a lot of corruption in Mexico when it comes to the police and how they treat people, there’s so many cover up cases over there. And then finding out more about Haiti and Brazil and all these cover up cases and how they basically treat their own people like garbage, the people they’re supposed to be protecting and caring for. 

Zara: Yeah, it’s just the way that there’s so much more attention being drawn to these things, and there needs to be attention being drawn to so much more as well, because I feel so many things are just getting swept under the rug. And it shouldn’t be. These things need to be shown and documented and shared. 

Natti: It’s like so many of us are caught up in our own world. We don’t realize the stuff going on around us until we finally sit down and watch things like this art piece. It really desensitizes you to stuff that we should be more aware of. 

Zara: Exactly. I agree. And then also, they even had a part where it was in the US, it was in Baltimore. And it’s more personal story interviews. There’s a couple different people and I like how they added parts from every single kind of part of the world. So it’s like, hey, this is happening everywhere. This isn’t just in Brazil, or this isn’t just in Haiti. This is happening like in your country. 

Natti: It’s happening in our first world countries as well. It’s not just the second or third world countries that it’s happening in. It’s happening all over to every different person in each and every community. And, I know that uncomfortable feeling of being watched because of how you looked. 

Zara: It’s so hard. I feel like in the community I grew up in, things were so well hidden. So you don’t notice it so much. But then it’s more desensitized to where it’s the more subtle kind of racism and just insults and things like that. It’s just so–people just brush right over it. 

Natti: And it’s not even just the police in general. It’s authoritarian figures that have that racism.

Zara: And even peers as well. 

Natti: Same with peers. It’s that internal racism that you face and I mean, because this piece isn’t just about police brutality, it’s about racism altogether. It’s about racism altogether. And what we face as a community just because of the color of our skin, just because of how our hair looks. Because of how we dress and because sometimes we’re too loud. We laugh too much. We can’t keep it down. But this piece brings such an uncomfortable awareness to this situation. 

Zara: I agree. Yeah. Even as someone who can relate to it, it’s still like an uncomfortable thing to kind of hear about, just having to hear about it and relate to it and understand what’s going on. 

Natti: Yeah, I think this piece is a piece that everyone should at least take ten, five minutes to just sit down and listen to. 

Zara: You don’t even need to see all the clips, just even a few. It can still impact you so much. 

Natti: Definitely confusing at first, but you always need to  just sit down and watch it and really listen and read along. 

Zara: I think we’ve talked about everything we wanted to get through. Thanks for listening.